Alvaro Valles He established himself in this phase as the titular goalkeeper of the Real Betis. The cornerback was patient to overcome competition from Pau López, who started the season up front in Manuel Pellegrini’s rotation but after his injury. … Since Catalan, the roles have changed and Valles took the position. Initially, Pau was guaranteed a presence in La Liga and Valles, in Europe, leaving Adrián for the Cup. However, everything has changed and now it is Valles who does it in the First Division competition and it remains to be seen the role of Pau, who has not played since the end of October although he was already available in recent days.
The fact is that Valles has been characterized by keeping clean sheets on several occasions, a challenge that Pellegrini always throws at his goalkeepers and which he emphasizes a lot in training. The cornerback has seven clean sheets in the fifteen games he has played. That is to say that almost half of the Betic goalkeeper’s matches consisted of leaving his goal impeccable. It was during the league matches against Mallorca (3-0), Sevilla (0-2), Rayo (0-0) and Getafe (4-0), in addition to the Europa League matches against Ludogorets (0-2), Genk (0-0) and Olympique Lyonnais (2-0).
However, this good statistic contrasts with the duels in which they concede goals given that they average two per game in these clashes. In total, Valles conceded fourteen goals in these fifteen matches, including five against Barcelona, which makes him the Betic goalkeeper with the best average at the moment.
Meanwhile, his biggest rival in Betic’s goals, Pau López, has played just eight games with just two clean sheets, against Alavés (1-0) and Osasuna (2-0). In total, he has played eight matches and conceded nine goals, so his current average is worse than Valles’.
The third contender in this sporting struggle for the Betis goal is Adrián, who has established himself as the goalkeeper of the Copa del Rey. The Sevillian veteran played three duels this day with only two goals conceded (1-7 against Palma del Río and 1-4 against Torrent), leaving a clean sheet on one occasion (0-2 against Murcia).
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